Judge's Ruling About Warrant-less Wiretapping Mostly for Show

The ACLU has been clamoring about the invasion of privacy by someone they love to demonize, George W. Bush. As part of the "it's all Bush's fault clan" the ACLU filed suit about what they allege was President Bush's use of the NSA for warrantless wiretapping.

The President justified it saying it was to target terrorists or related activity and the ACLU protested anyway.

The reality dear citizens is far less obvious and definitely not addressed by the timid and mostly controlled mainstream press.

Ask yourself if you were to build some kind of damn, say the Hoover Damn, would you call it complete after you dumped the first truckload of cement? In essence, this is what

U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit did when she became the first judge to strike down the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretapping program. On August 17, 2006, Diggs said it violates the rights to free speech and privacy as well as the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution. "Plaintiffs have prevailed, and the public interest is clear, in this matter. It is the upholding of our Constitution," Taylor wrote in her 43-page opinion.

Many scholars and political activists will heave a sigh of relief now that they believe the entire program has been exposed. Nothing could be further from the truth.

According to an article in Newsmax, "The government argued that the program is well within the president's authority, but said proving that would require revealing state secrets.

The ACLU said the state-secrets argument was irrelevant because the Bush administration already had publicly revealed enough information about the program for Taylor to rule".

A Brief Recap

Since the first week of December 2005, mumblings began about how the NSA and the Bush Administration conspired to invade the privacy of US citizens under the premise of protection against terrorism.

It would seem the New York Times opened up this Pandora's box, stating the Bush Administration had instituted "a major shift in American intelligence-gathering practices". For the record, an NPR report on Dec. 16^{th, 2005} stated they sat on the story for a year. Following suite as expected a cacophony of anti-Bushies, liberals and phony civil libertarians appeared to just have woken up to the realization they could be monitored by an elaborate electronic eavesdropping system. Oh, the humanity, er the privacy!

On January 6^th, 2006 CBS showed their bias when Harry Smith interviewed James Risen, a writer for the New York Times who had recently penned a 16-page article for the newspaper allegedly exposing the NSA and their eavesdropping on American Citizens. Smith used sinister language to describe the NSA program: "There's an organization called the National Security Agency which is a huge, basically, spy organization that's been authorized by the government to -- really has carte blanche -- to listen in on phone conversations, to tap into e-mail information on any American citizen without having to go to a court to get a warrant, to check this out."

Risen then attempted to correctly describe the scope of this super secret organization, the NSA, stating, "It's actually one of the largest intelligence agencies, perhaps the largest intelligence agency in the government. It's far larger than the CIA. It's something that a lot of people don't realize is uh it has enormous computing power in fact the NSA, at NSA headquarters in Fort Meade Maryland, it's widely believed that the NSA has the most computing power of any organization in the world of any corporation or government agency, and to put all of that computing power into searching the US telecommunications networks is an awesome power and that is why this is such an important story."

Even former VP Al Gore added his hypocritical voice to the noisy banter of Democrats protesting the eavesdropping without letting the true cat out of the bag.

Gore, called for an independent investigation of the administration program that he says broke the law by listening in - without warrants - on Americans suspected of talking with terrorists abroad.
Gore called the program, authorized by President Bush, ``a threat to the very structure of our government'' and charged that the administration acted without congressional authority and made a ``direct assault'' on a federal court set up to authorize requests to eavesdrop on Americans.

This was little more than political posturing as will be evident shortly.

This is not merely a matter of the Bush administration did this or that; it is a far larger issue which is carefully being avoided in the American Press. Perhaps because there are 4 other countries involved and far more people that would have to be implicated if the full truth were put into the public consciousness.

In the Beginning

If the history of surveillance by our nations intelligence agencies were to become known it would be obvious that monitoring anyone and everyone all the time would be the goal.

Project Shamrock, Minaret and others were all dedicated to acquiring information through warrantless eavesdropping on communications. In many cases this resulted in monitoring those individuals or groups who were in disagreement with current administration policies, whether it was Johnson, Nixon or Reagan, all parties have used this increasingly complex and advanced technology.

In order to wade through the latest misinformation it is necessary to turn the clock back at least 21 years to the beginning of negotiations between the five countries which constitute the UKUSA agreement (pronounced yoo-kooz-ah). The five countries, Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States of America comprise UKUSA, both now and when the treaty was originally penned in 1948.

Now it is 1984 and George Orwell, was more than right, only technology had to be put in place to provide a global surveillance system for any electronic communication. Big Brother was put into place under the code name ECHELON in 1994 with an array of Intelsat satellites that are periodically replaced with updated technology.

ECHELON for the most part is managed by the NSA-National Security Agency or No Such Agency for those who are familiar with the nickname for what is perhaps the most secretive of U.S. spy agencies. The budget, scope and what the agency does on a day-to-day basis are highly classified. The NSA, although there are official oversight committees seems to be held to even less accountability than the better-known CIA.

With less oversight, the intelligence communities have grown in their abilities and competing interior agenda's. Part of that agenda is to be able to monitor all electronic communications worldwide to gain any advantage necessary to further whatever agenda happens to be on the stove brewing at the time. For any conspiracy theorist this is just part of everyday normal thinking, only those inside our nations intelligence communities would prefer no party crashers, hence the effort made to debunk the many "private" researchers who expose their covert operations.

Author Nicky Hager is just one fine example. Hager has thoroughly researched the birth of ECHELON in his 1996 book, Secret Power. Hager got cooperation from one of the UKUSA member countries, New Zealand. In 1996 Ray Parker was head of the GCSB (Government Communications Security Bureau), the counterpart of the CIA/NSA in New Zealand. Parker chose to disclose this information to Hager for a variety of reasons; one that becomes clear when examining the effect of ECHELON is that the benefits of being part of this five country UKUSA agreement are not equal. Hager bursts the bubble on the massive misinformation campaign put on between 1985-90 on how the United States was pulling back their influence and other spy related activities when just the opposite was true, it was growing massively and with ECHELON it had the ultimate booster.

Another author, Jeffrey Richelson has written about US Intelligence agencies (see books, America's Secret Eye in the Sky and The Ties that Bind) Richelson stated about Hager's book, "His expose (of Echelon) and the Operations of the GCSB is a masterpiece of investigative reporting and provides a wealth of information."

Even Diane Fienstein the well-known liberal Democratic voice from California has shown her concerns are only politically motivated as she grilled Judge Samuel Alito recently about the privacy invasion. Since Fienstein actually sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee it would be hard to believe that she hasn't heard of ECHELON

If you haven't heard of ECHELON don't be shocked, until 1980, author James Bamford who was the first to write a book on the NSA, stated fewer than 1 in 10,000 people in America had even heard of the NSA prior to 1980. In 2005, when it comes to ECHELON, if the mainstream press is any indication that number would be about 1 in 100,000. (Those in the intelligence/military industrial complex not included).

ECHELON has already been exposed in the USA, not just with Hager's book, but a February 2000 piece done by Steve Kroft for CBS 60 Minutes. According to Kroft in his nationally broadcast report, "If you made a phone call today or sent an e-mail to a friend, there's a good chance what you said or wrote was captured and screened by the country's largest intelligence agency. The top-secret Global Surveillance Network is called ECHELON, and it's run by the National Security Agency." This would naturally make any comment from CBS news personnel very suspect at the very least. Perhaps Dan Rather will do a documentary on this eavesdropping scandal?
An article from Newsmax stated about the 60 minutes interview, NSA computers can capture virtually every electronic conversation around the world."

Echelon expert Mike Frost, who spent 20 years as a spy for the Canadian equivalent of the National Security Agency, told 60 Minutes that the agency was monitoring "everything from data transfers to cell phones to portable phones to baby monitors to ATMs."

Mr. Frost detailed activities at one unidentified NSA installation, telling 60 Minutes that agency operators "can listen in to just about anything" - while Echelon computers screen phone calls for key words that might indicate a terrorist threat.

The 60 Minutes report also spotlighted Echelon critic, then-Rep. Bob Barr, who complained that the project as it was being implemented under Clinton "engages in the interception of literally millions of communications involving United States citizens."

The 60 Minutes reported even mentioned a soccer mom who was discussing her sons recent performance on the soccer field. The mother mentioned her son "bombed" in a recent game, and immediately became suspicious enough to be reviewed.

With the ability to screen and monitor many millions of calls and data transfers every minute ECHELON is the pinnacle of gathering information. Analyzing what are known as keywords does this. Even the 60 Minutes article exposed those flaws. The website www.angelfire.com/wa/militia/echelon1.html provides a few hundred words which if electronically sent in any way, will draw the attention of an Echelon underling. A few dozen examples are given and if you take the time to actually review the entire list, you will see how difficult it is to discuss much of anything without using one or more of those words, even out of context. The 60 minutes article found a soccer mom was surveilled once she mentioned how her son really "bombed" in recent soccer match.

A small sampling of Keywords follows:

Rewson, SAFE, Waihopai, INFOSEC, ASPIC, MI6, Information Security, SAI, Information Warfare, IW, IS, Privacy, Information Terrorism, Terrorism Defensive Information, Defense Information Warfare, Offensive Information, Offensive Information Warfare, The Artful Dodger, NAIA, SAPM, ASU, ASTS, National Information Infrastructure, InfoSec, SAO, Reno, Compsec, JICS, Computer Terrorism, Firewalls, Secure Internet Connections, RSP, ISS, JDF, Ermes, Passwords, NAAP, DefCon V, RSO, Hackers, Encryption, ASWS, CUN, CISU, CUSI, M.A.R.E., MARE, UFO, IFO, Pacini, Angela, Espionage, USDOJ, NSA, CIA, S/Key, SSL, FBI, Secret Service, USSS, Defcon, Military, White House, Undercover, NCCS, Mayfly, PGP, SALDV, PEM, resta, RSA, Perl-RSA, MSNBC, bet, AOL, AOL TOS, CIS, CBOT, AIMSX, STARLAN, 3B2, BITNET, SAMU, COSMOS, DATTA, Furbys, E911, FCIC, HTCIA, IACIS, UT/RUS, JANET, ram, JICC, ReMOB, LEETAC, UTU, VNET, BRLO, SADCC, NSLEP, SACLANTCEN, FALN, 877, NAVELEXSYSSECENGCEN, BZ, CANSLO, CBNRC, CIDA, JAVA, rsta, Active X, Compsec 97. Steak Knife, High Security, Security Evaluation, Electronic Surveillance, argus, afsatcom, CQB, NVD, Counter Terrorism Security, Enemy of the State, SARA, Rapid Reaction, , Adriatic, Goldman, Ionosphere, Mole, Keyhole, NABS, Kilderkin, Artichoke, Badger, Paperclip, Chatter, MKULTRA, MKDELTA, Bluebird, MKNAOMI, White Yankee, MKSEARCH.

For those daring inquiring minds that want to string as many of these words together out of context when they talk to their baby sitter or dry cleaner. For those doing a Google search on these keywords, it should both inform and entertain one for hours on end.

What do the Polls say?

Unfortunately for Americans the media runs out to validate anything with polls of uniformed citizens. Since most people are more informed about celebrity gossip than they are about intelligence activities this is like asking your garage mechanic about theoretical quantum particle physics.

So naturally, when you ask a question a certain way, you can pretty much bank on getting that certain answer you want. Newsmax ran the following poll

Here is a breakdown of the poll results for several key questions:

1) Has President Bush been justified in tapping the conversation of U.S. citizens?
Justified - 80%
Not Justified - 20%

2) Do you believe the President must have a court-approved warrant to conduct a wiretap?
Yes - 23%
No - 72%
Not Sure - 5%

3) Do you believe President Bush's claim that he undertook this action to protect America?
Yes - 83%
No - 17%

4) How would you rate media coverage about President Bush's actions?
Fair - 20%
Unfair - 80%

The poll clearly shows many people comfortable with full scale monitoring which is yet another sign of how far the general knowledge level has fallen. If people were historically educated as to what usually transpires as control/power becomes more and pervasive, perhaps they would be more desirous of accountability. Surely, it would not be too much to ask for protection against incorrect actions made based on ECHELON or any other super secret system.

Is all this monitoring capability worth it?

After reviewing the keywords and the billions of known and countless billions of dollars more which are not even accounted for by Congress the question form an informed investigate reporter might be, "With all the power of ECHELON, why would we even have terrorism anyway, much less the birth of an extensive network capable of wrecking havoc all over the world?"

Before anyone runs from this article saying this was a report about the failure of ECHELON to deal with terrorism, let me enter into the mix the all-important wild card of politics. Simply put, if an administration, be it Bush, Clinton, Reagan, whatever, does not want to accept the evaluation of a potential threat; it usually has evidence at its disposal allowing it to decide something else. Bill Gertz's book, Breakdown, about the 9/11 attacks does a great job of illustrating how seemingly small personality and political leanings get in the way of being objective and dealing with evidence in a straight forward manner.

Another reason for Project Echelon

Inevitably, this ECHELON tool would be directed to use in fields other than military intelligence. When it comes to doing business, many claims have been substantiated how ECHELON is used to give certain American corporations a decided edge when it comes to world trade. One might even elaborate that the targeting of a major corporate center like the World Trade Center towers could have been partially motivated by those opposing ECHELON.

The 60 Minutes report specifically mentioned how ECHELON as used to give certain American Corporations an advantage.

Conclusion

The desired reality of having a Big Brother or ECHELON monitoring everything transmitted electronically is the protection it is capable of providing. In the real world that desired reality is contaminated by conflicting agenda's, political ideologies within the intelligence world and those powers outside of government, which influence them.

The movie Enemy of the State with Will Smith and Gene Hackman was widely panned by critics, who came out of the woodwork to say we just don't have that kind of capability. Critics like author, Ron Kessler, who is often given face and print time as an "intelligence expert." The reality is Mr. Kessler is likely more of a part of the intelligence community providing a valuable cover asset protecting and intentionally misinforming the general public about intelligence ops domestically and globally.

One quick aside about Mr. Kessler. He went quite overboard in defending the CIA during the media flap about the intelligence agencies involvement in drugs and arms in south Los Angeles in the 90's. Gary Webb, then a reporter for the San Jose Mercury News ran a well documented expose of the CIA involvement in California, which got a lot of public exposure and very heavy debunking from the likes of Kessler and other CIA media personnel. Webb's book, Dark Alliance sums it all up nicely, the CIA is involved in drugs and getting arms to gangs in South Los Angeles along with a lot of other places. Unfortunately, after speaking out courageously about the CIA's involvement Webb would eventually be marginalized at the newspaper and was later found dead on Dec. 13, 2004. Webb was said to have committed suicide, after he had shot himself in the head twice...translation, in all probability, this was a poorly staged suicide.

It is likely the mainstream press will continue to misinform the general public about who is listening and when. Those on the other side of the aisle are also guilty of not doing their homework. Newsmax correctly identified ECHELON as a global monitoring program and then quickly laid it before the feet of the Clinton Administration as though it was their entire fault.

Since this program has been specifically pursued since 1984 and dreamt of for years before, this can't be solved by playing a political "blame game."

The knee jerk reaction will be to request a further investigation. Those engaged in such pursuits need to be advised this will be more than difficult because of their cloak of secrecy and deniability. A quick reminder, John Deutsch, head of the CIA during the drugs and arms expose by Webb said at a public meeting (paraphrasing) "We have done an internal investigation of our activities at the CIA and any relation to drugs and found we are innocent."

Clearly justice will not be served by asking those responsible for the offense to investigate themselves.

When any true investigative reporter puts his magnifying lens on the case what will most likely be found is factions within the intelligence community pitting or squandering resources in internal power struggles when there is more serious business to address.

We should also ask if they could monitor everyone, how far away are we from electronically affecting people. Given the nature of the effect of frequencies on human physiology, the brain, and general psychology there is also strong evidence attempts are now being made to create some kind of socialistic utopian brave new world?

When that is created and both physical and intellectual freedom is slain will we look back and say, "Gee, I remember the good ol' days."

Just remember ECHELON has been listening then and now. Monitoring for terrorism while necessary will open the door for anyone else. Information is knowledge and knowledge wielded by the people with hidden agenda's will likely result in more abuse, more wars and less freedom for Americans.